Comparative Analysis Between Emma and Clueless Essay

Throughout the first chapter, Emma and her father mourn Miss Taylor’s absence, and this slowly transmutes into a central conflict, as Austen states that Mr. Woodhouse has difficulty comprehending the notion that Miss Taylor could be more content with her new life that contrasts so greatly from the years she spent in his illustrious house. Emma mentions the prospect of visiting Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston frequently; this foreshadows a potential conflict in which Emma and her father attempt to quell their woes by interfering with Mr. Weston’s and Miss Taylor’s life. This attempt at foreshadowing is exacerbated through an encounter between the Woodhouses and Mr. Knightley, her brother-in-law. Mr. Knightley reprimand’s Emma’s superstitious ability to matchmake and dictate relationships. This gravitation toward other individuals’ affairs will likely permeate the entire novel.

Her misfortune in the opening is that her ‘beloved’ friend Miss Taylor was getting married and would soon be leaving their estate to live with her husband. “Sorrow came—a gentle sorrow—but not at all in the shape of any disagreeable consciousness.” (1, Emma) in this novel, it is already evident that marriage isn’t what this heroine desires because she views marriage as a sorrowful event. It took her sister away and now her friend. Though her “employment” is to marry people, Emma doesn’t find the idea of marriage as an appealing

Jane Austen begins the novel Emma by stating, “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (1) immediately giving readers the impression that Emma is a young woman whom the readers should respect and grow to love throughout the novel. As we continue reading, however, we learn that while Emma has a good reputation and a circle of people who love her and want the best for her, she is extremely flawed. In the article, The Darkness in Emma, Anita Soloway states, “for Emma, beauty, cleverness, and wealth prove to be mixed blessings at best, for they foster the conceit of arrogance that lead her to hurt others and threaten her own happiness” (86) which ties into my argument that Emma’s good reputation is not necessarily based on her character, but instead, the lifestyle she lives, which is a similar concept for Tom in Tom Jones.

In eighteenth century which feminist in social status was not popular by that time, author can only through literature to express her thought and discontented about society. Jane Austen’s Emma advocates a concept about the equality of men and women. Also satirizes women would depend on marriage in exchange to make a living or money in that era. By the effect of society bourgeois, Emma has little self-arrogant. She is a middle class that everyone could admire, “Young, pretty, rich and clever”, she has whatever she needs. She disdains to have friends with lower levels. However, she is soon reach satisfaction with matchmaking for her friend. Story characterizes a distorted society images and the superiority of higher class status. It

“Emma could not resist. Ah! Ma’am but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me- but you will be limited as to number- only three at once”; Emma insults Miss Bates, who is a dear friend, in order to quench her desire for social credit. When Mr Martin’s proposal arrives for Harriet, Emma shakes her head with disdain. Emma has the highest social status, apart from Knightley, and uses this to diminish those of lower class. Chapone asks us to “Observe her manner to servants and inferiors” and whether she treats “them always with affability”, but we know, Emma does not. Emma thinks Mr Martin is a “very inferior creature” and when Harriet asks for advice Emma says “the letter had much better be all your own” but sneaks in “You need not to be prompted to write the appearance of sorrow for his disappointment”. Harriet refuses Martin, and Emma proclaims that Harriet, if she accepted, would have been “confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar” and “could not have visited Mrs. Robert Martin” since she deems the lower class as unsophisticated primitives. Emma would have lost her latest amusement and her chance to prove her intelligence. Emma’s subtle manipulations illustrates the absence of inner morality, and is thus, an ill-qualified mentor.

Austen’s views within Emma are a reflection of the prevailing views in the Regency Era, as the upper classes often abused their wealth and influence to ensure that their descendants would be wealthy like them. The rigidity associated with the class structure within the Regency era is initially reflected when Emma is characterised as, “handsome, clever and rich with a comfortable home and a happy disposition”. The fact the sentence specifically mentions her assets definitely emphasises how her inherited wealth is the major (if not only) factor accounting for her high status. This classist structure is later reflected with the gentry’s interactions of those below their social class. Emma’s arrogant tone when she teaches Harriet “the yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I can feel I can have nothing to do” is indicative of the inflexible nature of the class system during that era. It was acceptable to feel superior due to being of a higher class. Her view symbolises that of the upper classes’ patronising attitude to the lower classes, and thus emphasises the omnipresent nature of the class system within the United Kingdom. Hence, Austen’s heavy emphasis on the class system within Emma is a stark reminder of how our behaviours have not developed over the

Throughout history, notions of beauty have been integral to social life and culture, and are often reflected in period texts. An example of this is Jane Austen’s Regency era novel Emma (1815), and its 1995 film appropriation Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling. These texts use the beauty ideals of their respective periods to showcase the negative effects of superficiality and the importance of ‘inner’ beauty. This becomes evident through exploration of the beauty ideals of both eras and how representations of these ideals have been appropriated from Emma to Clueless through characterisation.

The novel's limited scope of action gives us a strong sense of the confined nature of a woman's existence in early- nineteenth - century rural England. Emma possesses a great deal of intelligence and energy, but the best use she can make of these is to attempt to guide the marital destinies of her friends, a project that gets her into trouble. The alternative pastimes depicted in the book — social visits, charity visits, music, artistic endeavours — seem relatively trivial, at times even

Transformation. What is a transformation? It is when the plot structure and focus of both texts remains intact, but the issues, values and setting are altered. Amy Heckerling’s Clueless transforms Jane Austen’s Emma by humorously depicting modern values. Emma is set during the Regency period, where it was a time of political and social change, with old rural-based values facing challenge from the new urban middle class whereas Clueless is portrayed in a post-industrial, consumer-driven society. Both composers share a common interest in highlighting class distinction; Austen emphasizes on social class in England while Heckerling focuses on the social cliques of youth in America.

Emma Woodhouse was the first heroine in Jane Austen’s novels to be free from financial concerns. She is introduced to the reader as being, “handsome, clever, and rich” as well as having “the power of having rather too much of her own way and disposition to think too well of herself” (Austen 1). Despite this description of a spoiled young woman who too often gets her way, she is not taken by personal vanity and is often genuinely compassionate to the poor. Despite being an exception to the

Albeit, this sense of authority Emma enjoys is quite fragile, considering the delimiting authority allowed a woman of Austen’s time. Therefore, Emma wishes to preserve and enhance her social status, while still being bound to the rules of her class, which inevitably place women in an inferior position to their male counterparts. The following paper will attempt to prove that despite marrying at the end of the novel, Emma does not seek love, but is much more interested in protecting her position in the patriarchal social hierarchy.

Amy heckerling revives Jane Austen’s Emma into a face-paced twentieth century America. Both texts are interconnected - the 1995 reinterpretation uses consistent core characters, themes and styles electic of the novel of manners whilst also embracing a new setting and set of social values - a recontextualisation into a “teen pic” film served to accommodate for an updated audience. We witness the transformation of setting, from the genteel village of highbury to the microcosmic commercially driven Beverly Hills. Despite the contemporisation, the primary plot and message resonates in clueless, and thus heckling did not ruin emma.

Emma, is the story of the education and growth process of Emma. Throughout majority of the novel, Emma involves herself in bad situations in which she misconstrues facts and blinds herself from the truth, at the expense of others. After Emma has discovered that she has been terribly wrong about Mr. Elton, and she was mistaken to encourage Harriet's affection of him, Emma says, "It was foolish, it was wrong to take so active a part in bringing two people together, it was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought to be serious- a trick of what ought to be simple!." Emma

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (Austen 3). The opening words of Jane Austen’s Emma served to highlight the rest of the novel’s themes concerning social class rankings. As the heroine of the story, Emma Woodhouse represented all the benefits that came with her high social standing. In nineteenth-century England, the issue of social status and rank pervaded everyday life and determined almost everything about a person. Social status in regards to marriage greatly affected one’s options, and society only deemed marriages within one’s social class as “suitable.” In her novel Emma, Jane Austen illustrated the nature of nineteenth-century social classes by introducing diverse characters and used Emma’s errors in judgement to satirize preoccupation with social class.

This image and atmosphere of mundane imperfection is a far cry from what Emma expects after reading the romantic novels she smuggled in at the convent. From those foppish texts she gathers the impression that ladies such as she should be “lolling on carriages” or “dreaming on sofas,” or perhaps embracing some dashing “young man in a short cloak” (Flaubert 32). Yet such is not the reality in which she lives.